Corrugated shipping containers have long been used to ship shock sensitive devices. Normally, such containers have been supplemented with various padding means to protect the device and absorb shock transmitted to the container during shipment. Such shock absorbing means often took the form of foam plastic members. Heretofore, such plastic members often comprised relatively large blocks of foam with a cut-out portion to accommodate with device being shipped. Upon arrival, the foam plastic with it cut-out portion was discarded. Thus, in mass production, this prior method was costly. Other typical containers used for sensitive devices comprised a padded insert placed within a carton. At least part of the padded insert containing the device was often made of corrugated paper material which is less expensive than molded foam plastic padding. However, in such instances full planks of foam plastic padding were usually laid across the exterior of the insert to isolate and protect the paper insert. Aside from using extraordinary amounts of foam plastics, these planks were bulky and difficult for the shipper to store in mass quantities. Other known shipping containers have utilized a plank of padding which was cut out in the center to form a collar-like ring. This ring would be placed within a protective insert which enclosed the device to be shipped within a shipping container. However, in order to mass produce such collars effectively expensive, custom made machine dies were required to form a particular shaped collar. The aforesaid problems have been solved by the present invention which provides a foldable padded insert which efficiently combines the features of paper and foam plastic and fits inside a carton for protecting shock sensitive devices during shipment.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a padded shipping container which economically and efficiently utilizes simple blocks of shock resistant material fixed to a foldable sheet.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a protective insert which fits inside a carton and utilizes relatively simple padding forms that do not require machine die production.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a padded shipping container which utilizes a protective, shock resistant padding form that can be nested together and easily stored.